Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai

Our group of Malaysian ladies attempted making Yau Char Kwai this month. We tried out two recipes and one turn out really well and one failed miserably. Not sure what went wrong with the failed recipe as we follow the ingredients and instructions to the T. Anyhow, we were glad Agnes Chang recipe turns out so well with less work and proofing time compare to the other one. The YCK were light with hollow texture on the inside. So the next time if we are going to make this again we will just stick to this recipe.

For more information about the Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai please read here. As for more information on Ammonia Powder please refer to here. For me information for Alum please refer here.

(I put both successful and failed YCK together for comparison. Just look at the difference in size)

1. Mix all the ingredients A and set it aside for 10 – 15 minutes until it get foamy.
2. Mix ingredients B. Sift ingredient C into a mixing bowl. Add in mixture of A and B into the flour. Used a wooden spoon, mix the dough until well combined. Knead it for 5 minutes and if the dough is too sticky to work with add a little bit more flour.
3. Cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 2 hours.

4. Turn the dough out to the well floured work surface. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and roll the dough out into a long rectangle. Cut into 1” strips. Place two strips, one on top of each. Let it rest for another 5 minutes.
5. In the meantime, prepare oil for deep frying.

6. Press lightly on the two strips of dough with a chopstick. Holds both ends of the dough and stretch the strips a little and lower into hot oil. Deep fry, turning constantly until each cruller turns puffy and golden brown.

Note: The dough is pretty sticky to work with so make sure your work surface, hands and utensils are well coated with flour.

Wah, kudos to you! Though I love yau zar gwai, I doubt I'll make it simply because they're deep-fried. Nowadays, I eat less of this too. Hey, I didn't know of dunking it into kopi-O to serve it. I'd been taught the Taiwanese way of dunking it into soy milk! LOL!

they really look good!! lucky you guys have so many ppls to share this gems!!...for me it's so sad...if I don't eat or finish trash it's will go...so now I seldom make any kuih..wish I can have one and dip wt my coffee now!! talking about dipping YCK wt coffee make ,this method of eating make my hongKies boss shocked!he said how can we eat YCK dipping in coffee and make our coffee so oily and dirty? in return I said why hongkies dipped their YCK in soy milk? same concept lor but different liquid only!

Wow, so happy for you ladies! The YCK look very successful. I like it with my coffee. Hope you're enjoying your day.Cheers, Kristyp/s have you tried the YCK recipe without using the Alum? I really wanted to try without the Alum cause it's not good to our health.

Shirley, yea it is fun to get together once a month. I am not sure if you can omit the alum or not. I infact plan to try this out with the alum and ammonia. Will let you know if it turn out well or not.

Reese, thank you.

Jessie, thanks.

Wendy, it was great with Kopi O :)

Christine, they texture were really light and airy except not as cripsy as the one we get from Malaysia. I am curious to know how your YCK turn out using Lily's recipe?

Pei Lin, if I am in Malaysia I will never attempt making this as we can get it easily. Oh yes, dunking it in Kopi O is so Malaysian.

Bee Bee, looking forward to see yours :)

LCOM, I don't like the one sold here. They are soft and very oily.

Jess, thanks.

Tigerfish, ha ha I actually like it in my rice porridge.

Lesley, yes we have quite a few Malaysian family here so it is nice to gather together once a month to cook, eat and catching up with each other. Actually we have been eating YCK dunk in Kopi O since young. There were good.

Ruby, you can get Amonia powder from the Vietnamese grocery store. I saw them the last time I shop there. I am in PA and the Vietnamese supermarket is called1st Oriental and it is at Washington and 7th Street.

I'm going to try this recipe this weekend! I've tried other ones that are similar without yeast and they turn out OK, but always soft and limp and not crunchy like the ones they sell in Hong Kong. Do you have a recipe for "Ngau Lay So"...or "Ox Tongue Pastry" for a literal translation. I've been searching for that one for so long, but have not found one. Your blog is wonderful!

Atlas 1059, homemade one will never be as crunchy as the one sold outside. This crullers will soften too in a few hours. The Ox tougue pastry you are refering to sound like what we called Mah Keok. Is this what you are looking for? http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2010/05/horses-hoofmah-keok.html

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I was born and raised in Malaysia and now live in Northern California, USA with my wonderful husband Carlos. I love to bake and cook. It is very relaxing and I find my creativity flowing in the kitchen. I creates this blog to record all my cooking and baking adventures and also share my tested recipes with you.
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